Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon on Monday called on all relevant authorities to ramp up their efforts to combat human trafficking in a bid to get Thailand reclassified as a Tier 1 country in the United States' Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report next year.
According to the 2023 TIP report released by the US Department of State on June 15, Thailand remains a Tier 2 country -- meaning it has yet to fully comply with internationally-agreed standards meant to prevent human trafficking but is making "significant effort" to that effect.
At a meeting of the national committee on human trafficking, Gen Prawit said the issue is at the top of the government's agenda, before stressing the government's commitment to getting Thailand elevated to a Tier 1 country on the list.
He instructed all agencies concerned to ramp up their efforts to ensure compliance, especially with regard to the 12 recommendations made by the US in the report.
The deputy prime minister stressed the need for police and the Interior Ministry to fully implement the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which was designed to enable anti-trafficking agencies to share information related to human trafficking or forced labour cases.
The national committee on human trafficking on Monday acknowledged and approved the proposal to support joint efforts between Thailand and Australia against human trafficking.
Thailand and Australia had agreed to establish the Counter Trafficking in Persons Centre of Excellence, the first training facility in the region with a dedicated focus on combatting human trafficking.
Separately, nine Indonesian citizens who were rescued from a human trafficking ring in Myanmar have been repatriated back to Indonesia, said deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn.
Pol Gen Surachate, as director-general of the Royal Thai Police's Child and Woman Protection and Anti-Human Trafficking Centre, said the Indonesians were tricked into working for a cryptocurrency scam gang in Myanmar. The victims fled to Thailand with help from the Anti-Human Trafficking Centre, officers in Provincial Police Region 6, and the Immigration Bureau (IB).
Twenty-five Indonesians were rescued in May, and another 22 were rescued this month.